THE LOS ANGELES EARTHQUAKE : Death in the Morning: Temblor Takes Its Toll : Worker Buried Alive in Shaft When Disaster Triggers Cave-in

A construction worker died at the bottom of a 33-foot shaft in the Angeles National Forest after he was buried by tons of dirt shaken loose by Thursday’s earthquake.

Antonio Bernal, 41, of Hemet died despite the frantic rescue efforts of five co-workers, sheriff’s deputies and county firefighters. Bernal’s crew had been replacing huge electrical towers just above Altadena in the San Gabriel Mountains for Southern California Edison Co. when the quake struck.

Bernal had worked since July for Union Engineering, a Ventura County firm subcontracting for Southern California Edison. A secretary at the firm said Bernal was married but knew little else about him.

Another man who was closer to the top of the shaft and was tethered by a rope was not injured in the cave-in.

Digging Foundation

The crew that Bernal belonged to was digging a foundation shaft for a new electrical tower. Bernal, who was using a bucket and winch to excavate the shaft, had little chance of escaping, said Capt. David Boucher of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Eaton Canyon Substation two miles south of where Bernal was killed.

“The way it went through here, it was like a damn bomb went off,” Boucher said. “He had no warning at all.”

Boucher said Bernal’s co-workers tried to get air to the trapped man by driving a steel pipe through the seven feet of dirt on top of Bernal. The rescuers also dug dirt out of the narrow shaft, but they could not work quickly because the shaft was only three feet wide and dirt had to be hauled out one bucketful at a time.

“There was nothing we could do,” Boucher said. “It was one man, one bucket, and it took three minutes to load each bucket and send it up by winch.”

Boucher said after the first hour, the rescuers worked with “quiet resignation.”

“It wouldn’t have made any difference. He was probably dead within six minutes,” Boucher said.

Rescuers reached Bernal’s body shortly after 11 a.m., more than three hours after the quake struck.

Replacing Towers

Since April, subcontracting crews working for Southern California Edison have been replacing old transmission towers and electrical lines running from the Gould Substation in La Canada Flintridge to the Mesa Substation in Monterey Park.

The Gould-Mesa line, one of the three major power sources for the San Gabriel Valley, is being upgraded to accommodate lines capable of carrying 220,000 volts, according to Bob Krauch, spokesman for Southern California Edison.

The work entails digging deep shafts in which concrete is poured to anchor new steel towers, Krauch said.

Sheriff’s deputies were first notified that Bernal was buried at 8:50 a.m. by an engineering crew working on another transmission tower in the area. Deputies and firefighters used helicopters to get to the cave-in because some roads had been blocked by rock slides. It took them nearly an hour to join Bernal’s co-workers in the attempt to save him.

The quake set off dozens of rock slides that buried parts of roads and and trapped at least nine hikers who later were rescued by a Southern California Edison helicopter crew. The utility’s helicopter also evacuated crews that were working near old electrical towers that had cracked and buckled.